Online marketplace PG Mall comes on with new marketing strategy

Online marketplace PG Mall was established in 2017, it is the brainchild of Public Gold Group Founder and Executive Chairman, Dato’ Wira Louis Ng Chun Hau, who aspires to grow and push homegrown brands to global frontier under a unique Sharing Economy business model.

In view of the evolution of internet over the last decade and rapid growth in eCommerce in the recent years, Public Gold which specializes in gold and silver bullions trading with online trading facilities since 11 years ago, saw an opportunity to diversify its investment-based products, to venture into consumer goods trading under PG Mall Sdn. Bhd.

PG Mall’s strength as a newly founded local eCommerce site is in its shared customer base with Public Gold that has more than 300,000 customers (and still growing) across South East Asia (SEA).

As part of its preliminary marketing goals, PG Mall aims to bridge its local merchants to regional SEA markets, followed by global venture in the near future.

This effort coincides with Malaysia’s current Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s call to support and promote local goods abroad to boost and accelerate the local economy.

PG Mall marks the first homegrown online marketplace in Malaysia among other existing foreign-owned giant conglomerates of its kind. Despite it being a fairly new player in the industry, PG Mall saw an impressive revenue growth in its initial startup years, and is confident that the brand is able to win a healthy market share and compete on level ground with big players within the industry in no time.

From a mere RM500,000 in 2017, PG Mall’s revenue has grown 10 folds within a year to RM5 million in 2018. As for 2019, the company is set to project a revenue of RM20 million by year end.

The rapid growth in PG Mall revenue is made possible through an aggressive marketing strategy that relies heavily on shoppers to grow its merchant and customer base under its very own business concept called Consumerchant.

The Consumerchant concept is basically a profit sharing plan developed to benefit PG Mall shoppers by rewarding them with cash back ranging from 0.5% to 3.5% upon every successful transaction made.

This concept also applies for referring new shoppers onboard under PG Mall referral programme. For every successful transaction made by the referred shoppers, the introducers will also receive the same rate of cash back of 0.5% per transaction, up to 3.5%.

The percentage of cash back is determined by the amount of transactions made by the shoppers and defined by their rankings – Super Shopper, Premium Shopper and Elite Shopper.

The cash back reward increases in proportion to the number of transactions made by both the introducer and their referred friends or family. The cash back will be debited into shopper’s PG Mall C-Wallet by default which can be redeemed for future purchases or withdrawn in cash.

By doing so, it not only creates a healthy and balanced economy business ecosystem, but also giving everyone an opportunity to earn and build permanent business empire with PG Mall. The brand believes shoppers are the value creators for the whole economy chain, for every produce must have a buyer to make the products valuable within the supply and demand ecosystem.

This shopper empowerment marketing strategy has been proven effective by its sister company, Public Gold Marketing Sdn. Bhd., the leading physical gold and silver trading centre in ASEAN’s precious metal industry, to be a catalyst in rapid revenue growth with minimal marketing budget injection yet fostering win-win outcomes for both merchants and shoppers aboard.

According to the Managing Director of PG Mall Sdn. Bhd., Dato’ Wira Louis Ng, “Being a homegrown brand, we target to recruit more Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) on board especially the local ones because we believe they share the same sentiment of wanting to aggressively grow their business while contributing to our nation’s financial stability which subsequently boost local economy to greater heights.

At the same time we also encourage shoppers to venture into business through our unique Sharing Economy business model.” “Our business model enables anyone, young or old, to own a business empire through referral under the Consumerchant concept and drop shipping, without needing prior knowledge in business.

“We want to revolutionise shopping through our ‘Shop, Share and Earn’ motto. Generally, people shop because they needed to buy something and while they Shop we reward them with cash back of 0.5% per transaction. And if they enjoy shopping with us, we encourage them to Share their wonderful shopping experience with family and friends and reward them further with more cash back up to 3.5%. The more they shop and refer, the more cash back they will Earn,” he explained.

Drop shipping is a supply chain management method whereby the retailer does not keep goods in stock but instead transfers the customer orders and shipment details to the manufacturer, another retailer, or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer.

At PG Mall, apart from providing an ideal trading platform for merchants, they also offer coaching services to new entrepreneurs on board. In June 2017, PG Mall has collaborated with the Malaysian Internet Entrepreneurs Association in an effort to engage more start-ups to explore the new era of eCommerce under a reliable and safe marketing platform that ultimately links them to international markets.

A couple of months later, it has gotten Pos Malaysia Bhd’s courier arm, Pos Laju onboard under a strategic partnership, to be the main logistic partner in the region. This enables PG Mall to reach out to millions of online shoppers in urban areas through Pos Malaysia’s 700 outlets nationwide.

Since its inception, PG Mall has attracted over 10,000 merchants onboard with approximately 500,000 merchandise, consisting of mainly lifestyle products and services to cater to local, regional as well as global market. Currently, PG Mall is ranked third in the Malaysian online marketplace, behind two foreign- owned big brands – Lazada and Shopee, but excels as the country’s No.1 local eCommerce platform.

At this growth rate, PG Mall is confident that in no time, they are able to grow in size to match the big players of its kind in order to be treated as a serious market contend